My Sheep Know My Voice
John 10:22-30
by Jim Westmoreland
A rabbi and his pupil were discussing God's Word:
Rabbi: Herschel, do you know the sacred scriptures?
Pupil: Yes, teacher, I have been studying them.
Rabbi: And, do you know the phrase, 'Thus have I heard?'
Pupil: Oh, yes, that is throughout the scriptures.
Rabbi: Herschel, what have you heard?(1)
We have our own history with God. Some of us have been believers and followers of Jesus most of our lives. Others of us may have made public decisions to follow Christ later in life. We are like Herschel. Wherever we are in our journey, we have had our opportunities to hear God speak to us as we have come to worship on Sundays, as we sing and listen to Christian hymns, as we hear the scriptures read, as the sermon is preached, as we receive the Lord's Supper, as we have had opportunity to do our own private bible reading and bible study, and as we have had opportunities to meditate on all that God has revealed to us.
Now, the question comes directly to each one of us, "What have you heard?" How is God active in your life, leading, challenging, causing you to grow? Where is your life ministering to others? It is not about hearing sounds, words and other noises that clutter our mind, but do not do anything for us. It is about hearing God's word for me! That is an impact experience. It requires that I respond, make decisions, take some actions. Passivity is the same as rejection when God reveals Himself to us.
In various ways we have trouble in discerning the voice of God in our daily lives. Time and again, people ask themselves, "God what do you want me to do?" We have a longing to know God's leading, but we struggle to hear his voice. How do these words about sheep apply to my marriage, to my relationship with my family or my neighbors, or to the way I use my time?
This mornings Scripture lesson takes us back in time to the middle of Jesus ministry. He is visiting Jerusalem during the Feast of Dedication, which is the feast as Hanukkah celebrated by Jews today. The Jewish feast of Hanukkah celebrates the victory of the Maccabeans, a Jewish nationalist sect, over the Syrians in 164 B.C.E. Three years earlier, Antiochus Ephiphanes IV had set up a statue of Zeus in the holy of holies of the Jerusalem Temple. It commemorated Judas Maccabeus' victory and cleansing of the Temple. While the festival has lost its political significance in modern times, it once was the Jewish equivalent to our 4th of July.
John tells us that Jesus is in the Colonade built by Soloman. The structure was located next to the Temple and used as an enclosed area for teaching by the scribes and rabbis. The verb John uses conveys the sense that Jesus is there teaching. He is not a sightseer. He is not casually strolling through buying trinkets to take back to his friends in Capernaum.
The passage turns on the question from one of the Jewish leaders, "How long our you going to keep us in suspense?" Jesus' critics have had it with Jesus. By that the questioner meant, how long before you reveal whether you are the promised one, the Messiah? Why do you tell stories? We want you to give us the information in plain, down to earth, easy to understand, black and white answers.
John Pavelko, pastor of Crossroads Presbyterian Church in Walled Lake, MI, says, "We have become conditioned to short concise, easy to understand sound bites. We have lost the skill of understanding allusions, metaphors, similes. They are too nebulous, too ambiguous, too confusing. We would prefer to hear a voice from a burning bush, or see handwriting on the wall, or read messages etched in stone tablets. But such literalness removes the element of faith. It removes the free will offering and reduces our actions to robot like responses. It also denies the reality that God has spoken and still speaks.(2)
Jesus is exasperated with them. He says that he has been teaching them, telling them, but they haven't seen and haven't heard. Then Jesus says, "My sheep hear my voice and they follow me." Sheep? We're back on the metaphorical, symbolic, and figurative.
But maybe some of you know exactly what Jesus is talking about. Why are you here this morning? Why are you, despite all of your weaknesses and misunderstanding, here following Jesus? Some people don't think much of being compared to sheep. In a sermon on this text, Barbara Brown Taylor speaks of how distasteful some church members regard Jesus' calling them "sheep." She says, "Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered last Tuesday that someone I know actually grew up on a sheep farm in the midwest and that according to him sheep are not dumb at all. It is cattle ranchers who are responsible for spreading that ugly rumor, and all because sheep do not behave like cows. According to my friend, cows are herded from the rear by hooting cowboys with cracking whips, but that will not work with sheep at all. Stand behind them making loud noises and all they will do is run around behind you, because they prefer to be led. You push cows, my friend said, but you lead sheep, and they will not go anywhere that someone else does not go first - namely their shepherd - who goes ahead of them to show them that everything is all right.
"Sheep tend to grow fond of their shepherds, my friend went on to say. It never ceased to amaze him, growing up, that he could walk right through a sleeping flock without disturbing a single one of them, while a stranger could not step foot in the fold without causing pandemonium. Sheep seem to consider their shepherds part of the family, and the relationship that grows up between the two is quite exclusive. They develop a language of their own that outsiders are not privy to. A good shepherd learns to distinguish a bleat of pain from one of pleasure, while the sheep learn that a cluck of the tongue means food, or a two note song means that it is time to go home.
"In Palestine today, it is still possible to witness a scene that Jesus almost certainly witnessed two thousand years ago, that of Bedouin shepherds bringing their flocks home from the various pastures they have grazed during the day. Often those flocks will end up at the same watering hole around dusk, so that they get all mixed up together - eight or nine small flocks turning into a convention of thirsty sheep. Their shepherds do not worry about the mix-up, however. When it is time to go home, each one issues his or her own distinctive call - a special trill or whistle, or a particular tune on a particular reed pipe, and that shepherd's sheep withdraw from the crowd to follow their shepherd home. They know to whom they belong; they know their shepherd's voice, and it is the only one they will follow."(3)
Remember the rabbi's voice calling out, "Herschel, what have you heard? Listen to Jesus' response to those who questioned him to make Himself clear, "I have told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do testify to me, but you do not believe because you do not belong to my sheep. "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me."
If Jesus is our Lord and Savior, and He is our loving and faithful shepherd, I don't understand how people can drop in and out of the flock because something they'd rather do came along. We can all think of something that would keep us out of church. Is it the coaches' and leagues' fault for scheduling various games for our children that interfere with Sunday morning worship, or is it a parent's fault for going to them? I hear many complaints about various things that seem to conflict with our values. We all struggle with conflicts over time, priorities and values. We all want to be liked, to be one of the crowd, but at what cost?
"My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me." How can these words guide us? How can they help us in our spiritual lives where true happiness and fulfillment is found? Acknowledging Jesus' voice and leadership in our lives is the first step toward honest reflection and correction. I think the most important image related to the sheep is that they know and trust the shepherd in a way that too few people today do. He knows us by name. He knows all about us. He not only knows our attendance and giving record, He knows our thoughts and deeds. Not because we would be a franchise pick for His team, but, because of His grace He calls us and wants us to be on his team. And, we are given the choice to follow Him or to ignore Him and go our own way. If we go our own way, then the scripture says it is because we do not belong to His sheep.
There is an either/or in this text. Jesus does not say, we are all one big happy flock. Nothing really matters. He does say, "you don't believe because you don't belong to my sheep." Then, he describes His sheep, saying, "My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me." Next, He gives some assurances to His sheep, saying, "I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one will snatch them out of my hand."
In the back of my mind I still hear the conversation between the rabbi and Herschel, and I hear Jesus' words, "My sheep hear my voice," and I wonder, What have I heard? Amen.
Century Christian Church, April 29, 2007 - Sermon by Jim Westmoreland
www.centurychristian.org
1. Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com
2. Rev. Dr. John H. Pavelko, "Sheep Smarts."
3. Barbara Brown Taylor, "The Voice of the Shepherd."